The REAL story behind WrestleMania XL w/ Brian Gewirtz | Busted Open 

😂

It's Gewirtz. That's his fixed up look.

😂

Even a T-shirt that fits would've been acceptable. That collar driving me nuts.

lmao 😊

Sure the host wears t shirts also 😅😅

It's not an interview. 😂

😂😂

Nor changed his clothes..

Lmao yea he does.

could be years of drug use

Rock putting him to work lol

Everything pints towards HHH doing everything for Cody getting the shot. They never had the Rumble winner choose the champion right after winning except this year, that should tell you all you need to know.

I love how this guy is trying to justify rock vs roman by saying that it was in the works and the head of the table promo was a test. Yes Rock vs Roman would be awesome but not at the expense of Cody vs Roman 2 yr storyline. Rock basically wanted to "go into business for himself"

The story has been catalogued pretty thoroughly. Here are the details January 1st: The Rock makes a surprise appearance on WWE television, makes the "Head of the Table" reference, crowd goes nuts. January 2nd or 3rd: TKO Executives and The Rock see the massive reaction to that line, realize they have something here. As Gewirtz mentions, the head brass meets in a hotel room and finalizes the plans for The Rock vs. Roman Reigns main event. HHH is heavily against this proposal as the Cody Rhodes storyline is his first massive creation, but he is outvoted. January 27th: Cody Rhodes is informed that it is heavily likely that The Rock vs. Roman Reigns is the planned main event of Wrestlemania. HHH makes the incredibly calculated move to make Cody Rhodes the Royal Rumble winner. He also tells Cody that after the main event he should point directly at Roman Reigns, making it clear that he intends to face him at Wrestlemania. This is the first step in building the crowd against The Rock vs. Roman. What very few remember is that after a WWE show in Knoxville soon after, WWE filmed a segment where Shinsuke Nakamura attacked Cody Rhodes backstage. You can view it here facebook.com/reel/903666694498668 This led to a bullrope match Cody won. HOWEVER, the original intention of this segment was that CODY RHODES WAS BEING WRITTEN OFF TELEVISION. This is the reason Gewirtz says "The original plan would've angered all the Cody fans even more". Because the original plan was Rollins vs. Punk, Rock vs. Roman Reigns, and Cody Rhodes would be written off TV with an storyline injury to return after Wrestlemania. February 3rd: WWE mildly changes course on this decision. Cody is returned to television, but instead of challenging Roman, he gives up his spot for The Rock in the segment. Part of the reason they did this was because Punk had gotten injured. Instead of keeping Cody off TV, they were going to move him into the match vs. Seth Rollins at Wrestlemania. Obviously that is why we saw that Rollins promo beforehand about his title being the "working man's title". It was to explain why Cody would choose him over Roman. Fans didn't buy it. The Rock and TKO had made final approvals at this point. All was set. But HHH was still booking the actual show. So Gewirtz wrote the promo as a "Cody encourages Rock to beat Roman for him", but HHH and Cody Rhodes in a sense 'went into business for themselves' and played it off as Cody being disappointed. Knowing full well this made it look like The Rock had politicked into the spot, which they were hoping would lead to fan backlash. February 8th: It is clear in the 5 days between, The Rock and TKO saw the backlash that happened. The Rock was blindsided because the last time he was on TV, the crowd went nuts for him vs. Roman Reigns. And TKO had just bought the company and assumed The Rock was the biggest star in the world. Of course it made sense! But they saw the social media response. Everybody involved made the pivot that happened, and the rest is history. So the story was really that The Rock and TKO were a bit oblivious to what was happening with the current WWE product, made the match that made sense in theory rather than in practice, and HHH/Cody Rhodes did all the little things they can to get the story they had told for the previous two years back into the fold.

A great analysis with good points.

I completely agree and great point. The only part I question this is that if Rock vs Reigns was the full plan, then why did they have Roman come out to watch the Rumble so that Cody could point at him.

...or doing blowcaine

Try harder numps

@@maximumrelaxation4770yepppp he’s on that booger sugar 😂

He 100% rubbed one out minutes or possibly seconds before this.

Looks fine

I laughed way too hard at this.

Kind of like Brian Grazer also who is Ron Howard's producing partner.

Yes! Your right

@@kennyjones6369 But seriously Gewirtz literally looks like he just woke up. No attempt at combing his hair, stretched out t-shirt and bags under his eyes.

Has those vibes

Acid and Mushroomz

He did see it coming... Rock was the one who didn't.

Underrated comment

Yes, man.

@@uzi978Rock don’t watch 3 hours of RAW every week, I can guarantee you that. He didn’t know how invested people were into Cody’s story. People begged for Rock vs Roman for four years, it’s not his fault they didn’t have Cody win at WM39 when he was supposed to.

He’s a shill

BINGO. This goof thinks the fans are stupid. We’re not. He must not know what happened when they tried this crap 10 years ago with Daniel Bryan losing his WrestleMania main event moment to Batista. The fans burned it all down. This was actually WORSE than what happened then. Cody WON the Rumble. He had every right to finish his story at WrestleMania against Roman in the main event for the undisputed WWE Championship, only for Rock to roll up out of nowhere, not do a single thing to earn that opportunity and just take it like candy from a kid? It doesn’t work like that anymore, and the fans let him loudly know about it.

it would of had backlash because people already made there mind up

It felt wrong to me and I’m a Rock fan, they should’ve pulled the trigger and had Cody win last year. Then there wouldn’t have been any issues with Rock vs Roman, which people begged for the last four years.

Exactly, it would be even more insane if he did smile and be like it’s okay, I’ll put my life on hold for the rock.

@@loregasmicbut Roman winning the first time was a last minute Vince thing no?

The drugs. 😂

Meth

Nobody cares

Yeah, that description got weird real quick. 😂

​@@Difrentstyles Why did you care so much about a come joke that you had to comment that? Good luck on that music "career." It's always refreshing to hear verses from the perspective of someone who should have never been born in the first place.

The guy is at his house chillin I don’t see why everyone seems to care about how another man dresses or looks.

@@christophersconiers4979 Because it’s unprofessional. If you’re going to do an interview and be on camera, at least look presentable. Doesn’t have to be a suit and tie, but at least try not to look like you’re begging for change in a subway station.

@@Jeff_Prycewho gives af man only god can judge you.

@@jimcornette4492 Not quite true. Most of the comments here are judging him, as well.😂 Grown ups dress like grown ups. Not a very hard ask, especially considering how much this guy gets paid.

@@Jeff_Pryce boom how do we look judging somebody who made millions.

How to get him fired?

he should stay away from long-term booking. He can probably to short funny sketches for the rock still

Only the weirdest people hold onto some random decision from a 20+ yr old raw that een the wrestlers wouldnt care about anymore LOL xD Seek help bro

He also didn't want Cody to stop being Stardust. The guy is a kiss ass and delusional. Rock was out of touch with what the fans wanted at the time, and just thought he was such a big star that it wouldn't matter and he could do whatever he wanted.

You sure it was him who pitched that? Remember the guy that used to oversee the entire creative department at WWE before he allegedly crapped on a mistress' head?

Paul should fight him again

Heyman should've ended this fool and WWE wouldn't have to go through that shitty decline era

Dude is a gofer sidekick, mf acting like everyone was on their feet waiting for his input 💀 Dwayne is a deluded roid monkey and his little house boy here is just the worst hype man ever 😭

I want to give a f*** the guy writes for The Rock probably much richer than you I wouldn't give a f***

True but his track record speaks for itself. He’s contributed way more positive stuff to WWE than any of those hack writers Vince hired after he left

Mr X bloodline just another stupid comment this is why they keep these people usually off TV they use their brains and they pick their brains and entertain people that's how it works brother LOL

@Difrentstyles funny you took it as a diss. Maybe your collar looks similar. I was suggesting the dude doesn't care about anything butt what he cares about, lol idiots

@@tededwards5709no he didn’t

Brian’s camera is good. It’s just Dave’s camera that’s bad quality. Needs to upgrade

I expected the very same and was surprised. I also didn't expect rock to be on week to week

Yall are silly he literally sat on Pats show last September and teased WM 40. Even ESPN asked about Rock vs Roman for WM not Cody lol. Only this small little faction here think this way and run around smearing people instead of following facts. It actually brings a bad name to the Fandom really. The only other PPV is a rumble match.

@@tqueen7131, I don’t watch sports. I didn’t see the Pat Macafee show or the ESPN one. Even with WWE, I don’t watch it as often anymore. I may watch the occasional PPV or RU-vid clips of certain things that catch my interest but I simply don’t have the time to commit to it anymore like I used to. But, I was glad to see Cody finally get the belt! It was a long time coming. And the main event was really good!

Why do you say that Cody Roman Rock storyline was one of the best WWE ever had and you can't deny that rock and Brian were pivotal in a lot of that stuff, I would say having Vince back leading creative team is the biggest nightmare of all

Love you gave Brian his flowers but if he has changed why did Cody win Rumble? Why set it up so the crowd thinks badly about The Rock? This sounds like the stories guys like Bret Hart and Stone Cold, and many, many others have told about Paul L.

who does tech support after purchase?

F*** them they got money they'll go on Amazon and figure it out

Issue isn'T with the cam. The uplink to the SiriusXM studio must be the issue.

But he tried to stand in the way until he realized he didn’t have a choice but to step aside. There was no other option or his match would’ve been booed out the stadium

​@smokeyjoe127 I'm sry wrestlemania has the most casuals out of any show they do. In likely the first and last time they'd be able to see the rock work. Wouldn't happen

Rock only said that after his tactics of trying to go into business for himself backfired with #WEWANTCODY.

If he paid any attention to people who aren't himself then I bet he would have known that before he stepped foot aback on screen.

His Knicks have robbed him of his rest

could be years of drug use

could be years of drug use

He did a really fun interview with Edge and Christian on their podcast years ago. Really funny when you get those three together since they're actual really good friends.

could be years of drug use

​@lejonknug how many times are you going to comment this? Lol

Cody was the guy they wanted to win against Roman they was going to have Cody win and then get injured in a segment where Rock then takes his Wrestlemania place to fight Roman rock was going to lose and then Cody comes back and reinstate his rumble win privilege to fight Roman and then win this time the issue is when Punk got injured so now they need someone for Rollins which is why they purposely made Cody give his spot to Rock and he challenges Rollins again for the title obviously this is hilariously bad which is why Rollins was injected into the bloodline feud since he was promised a wrestlemania main event and his own title match with Drew was an afterthought and Drew was supposed to fight Priest 1v1 in a non title match

Brian said he knew it would be "problematic" if Cody won the Rumble, he didn't think that was a good idea.

@@uzi978 But what was the idea?

@@ResistingDeath I’m not sure they had one. They just wanted to get to Rock vs Roman. I just don’t get why they didn’t fix it simply by having Rock come out at No.30,throw out some people, a stare down or two, pretend to get hurt for like 5 minutes and then win the Rumble. It works so simply. If Dwayne wasn’t ring ready by January, he had no business even asking for the WrestleMania main event. Their plans shouldn’t have been thrown in flux because he couldn’t make up his mind before then.

@@ResistingDeathto make sure the fans thought the rock took cody’s spot, this is why they had cody point at roman as well. triple h and cody out politicked the rock, roman, and paul heyman beautifully

Sadly they still do it's really a segment of Cody fans though but guys lime Dave promoted the idea and sort of pushed thus nasty narrative along with dirt sheets.

Master politician.

Because they set it up for you to think they did him that way when in fact it was The Rock that was sabtoged after a year of planning, rearanning his life schedule and promoting and teasing the match since last year. Had he not have won rumble pointed at Roman and put a sad face on fans would not have acted that way. He did not need WM for his story. Rock vs Roman was a WM built story for years. Imagine you thinking it's OK that Rock and Roman's story got ruined for someone elses story that had 0 to do with WM. Cody did not get his story ruined or sbastoged because it was still going to happen as Brian said. But now how do you tell the story they built where Roman is a heel and The Rock comes in to put the family back in order? You can't and it's quite sad anyone thinks that's OK for a guys story that did not need WM.

​@@tqueen7131 I've read your comments... It's obvious you are incapable of having an objective view and a logical discussion about any of this. You come across like an unhinged fanatic who bows before rock figurines. Rock stepping in was trash and EVERYONE knows it. The entire world watched the company pivot and auto correct. You do realize there's more going on in the world than dwayne johnson's schedule right?

Why bring a dinosaur back close to extinction? We want new blood

@@yassver I agree. But if Dwayne wanted this match, all I’m saying is at least put in the work to make it make sense. He didn’t. He got lazy. He wasn’t in ring shape by January, he had zero good booking to get him to Roman without winning the Rumble, and he expected everyone to buy it because “I’m the Rock, everybody loves me!” The fans saw right through it and booed it out of existence. He should have worked harder for that moment if he wanted it instead of coasting and expecting his half-wit writer to figure it out.

They basically wanted Cody to instate his rumble win after Wrestlemania and then win Cody was supposed to get injured in an angle and Rock take his Wrestlemania spot lose to roman then Cody comes and wins the issue is when Punk got injured Seth needed an opponent so then they kept Cody for Cody vs Seth 4 for 40 but then huge backlash made them keep Cody and Roman which is why Seth sorta was injected into that feud and why Seth Wrestlemania title match felt like a afterthought Drew vs Priest was the orginal idea

So if they had stuck to their plan, he won the Rumble to wrestle after wrestlemania?

@@r3bel383 basically cody explains in his interview he was told the day of the Rumble that he wasn't going to main event wrestlemania against Roman again but rather fight Roman at a later date and win since Roman and Rock was going to have their match

@sparknazo ok, in my opinion that still makes no sense to why they still had him win but I do understand your comment now.

This bum needs to leave the storylines and booking to others, I hope there was a way to get him fired. He surely looks like he's on drugs or something. Hopefully the thing what happened with Vince also happens to him so he can leave WWE alone because one wrong step and we are back to Vince era 🤦🏻

That’s a good thing

@@reeseangle9621 as a cody fan, i agree...but if they all agreed that rock vs. roman was "best for business" it was a dirty move..

Probably dreamed that up under the bridge he was sleeping at. 😂